Editor's Pick

Camille Villar: Crossing political lines for Mama’s Senate seat

AI fakery rises, but cheapfakes still rule the race

PHL Vote 2025

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By Pipo Gonzales and Yvonne T. Chua

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May 10, 2025

AI-manipulated videos and audio have emerged as a growing disinformation tactic ahead of Monday’s midterm elections—more frequent, more targeted and more deceptive. Despite their rise, simpler manipulations, or shallowfakes, remain the more widespread threat, continuing to dominate the misinformation landscape flagged by fact-checkers.

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An election-related question in Bohol: ‘Is it raining over there?’

PHL Vote 2025

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By Cooper Resabal

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May 10, 2025

How much is the going rate?An incumbent candidate for Congress has doubled the cash given by his opponent to ensure victory from P500 to P1,000 per vote, many recipients attest. For some, “the vote is given to the highest bidder,” says one, who refused to be named.

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Phantom banks, shaky claims undercut viral Marcos gold story

Tiktok and Surveys: The Dutertelenovela and political content

Commentary

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By Katrina Stuart Santiago

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Apr 29, 2025

These narrative shifts are only possible because the Dutertes are doing Tiktok content like it’s nobody’s business… Now there is barely any pro-Marcos content, and even Imee rarely appears unless she’s with VP Sara…Now, it is all the Dutertes. The For You Page shows it, and the surveys, too.

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FACT CHECK Online Posts

FACT CHECK: Ballots NOT ‘thin,’ do NOT make ‘small dots’

A text message is spreading online advising the public to place only small dots on the ballots on May 12 to prevent overvoting. The Comelec said not to do this.

News PHL Vote

Makabayan’s mission: To build a ‘people’s opposition’ and bring the common man to the Senate … someday

The Makabayan bloc has a different goal than traditional politicians: build a “people’s opposition” which will go beyond the May 12 elections. Garnering support for key issues they advocate is the impact they want to make.

Commentary

Pope Leo XIV’s migrant roots

As a pope of the contemporary world, one issue he will address will be migration, a preferential apostolate of the Catholic Church. Migrants migrate to escape conditions of poverty, religious and political persecution, and wars. Migration is never a crime. What will his papacy do to embrace the humanity of migrants and refugees? As a son of migrants and of Afro-Creole culture, Leo XIV is a groundbreaking pope.